Subject: MYSTARA-L Digest - 3 Aug 2004 to 4 Aug 2004 (#2004-157) From: Automatic digest processor Date: 05/08/2004, 17:00 To: Recipients of MYSTARA-L digests Reply-to: Mystara RPG Discussion There are 10 messages totalling 586 lines in this issue. Topics of the day: 1. A New Campaign (6) 2. Dragon magazine/ Dungeon magazine (3) 3. D&D Companion Rules ******************************************************************** The Other Worlds Homepage: http://www.wizards.com/dnd/OtherWorlds.asp The Mystara Homepage: http://www.dnd.starflung.com/ To unsubscribe, send email to LISTSERV@ORACLE.WIZARDS.COM with UNSUB MYSTARA-L in the body of the message. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 4 Aug 2004 11:31:50 +0300 From: =?ISO-8859-1?Q?Ville_V_L=E4hde?= Subject: A New Campaign Hello, I'm thinking about starting a brand new Mystara campaign, and I could use some fresh ideas. I have only been DMing one campaign in OD&D Mystara, one that has been going on since autumn 1988 and doesn't seem to end anytime soon. But the trouble is that our regular campaign doesn't get many gaming sessions, since after all these years people have developed lives, kids, jobs etc (horror!). And what's more, we are now in the midst of a solo-game period. But my other gaming group that has been playing almost weekly for the last 10 years or so has just finished a long career of Harnmaster, and we are looking for the next project. We are currently experimenting on indie games, but we need one steady campaign to create continuity. I proposed Mystara, and people were interested. If we ever get the campaign started, I'm afraid I won't be using OD&D - one campaign of that is enough. And our old group also has a long-standing AD&D-campaign, so that is out too. Diversity is cool. Besides, the guys of our weekly group have played AD&D enough in their time, and wouldn't want to get back anymore. Possibly I'll try HARP (so in that sense I'm off topic here). But the system is irrelevant here, I'm more interested in Mystaran ideas. See, my old OD&D campaign (the Twin Campaigns) has deviated a lot from the Mystaran products, and many ideas in Gazetteers simply aren't viable there. I wish to start a good old 1000 AC campaign. The framework will possibly be a trading caravan, or at least the campaign starts there to allow a wide diversity of PCs as caravan guards. I have a lot of samller ideas that I have dumped during the last 14 years, but I also want the campaign to centre on some basic notion: rivalry of Trading Houses, Shadowelf plots, whatever. But after all these years it's hard to decide. Any ideas? Yours, Ville ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 4 Aug 2004 03:30:56 -0700 From: Thibault Sarlat Subject: Re: A New Campaign is it really important for the action to take place on the KW? i would go for a Davania campaign. caravans are the only way to link very distant cities. take the big desert between the addakian sound and Polakatsikes for example. I set a big baddy in the midst of the desert (it's a kind of local Barimoor, called Moray Vacco (cf B5). If it's set in AC 1000 ,then there are no HK there, except maybe in Schweidnitz (see Guilio). anyway, picking an underdevelopped region might be less tricky since you can rule everything out. thib --- Ville_V_Lähde wrote: > Hello, > > I'm thinking about starting a brand new Mystara > campaign, and I could use > some fresh ideas. I have only been DMing one > campaign in OD&D Mystara, one > that has been going on since autumn 1988 and doesn't > seem to end anytime > soon. But the trouble is that our regular campaign > doesn't get many gaming > sessions, since after all these years people have > developed lives, kids, > jobs etc (horror!). And what's more, we are now in > the midst of a > solo-game period. > > But my other gaming group that has been playing > almost weekly for the last > 10 years or so has just finished a long career of > Harnmaster, and we are > looking for the next project. We are currently > experimenting on indie > games, but we need one steady campaign to create > continuity. I proposed > Mystara, and people were interested. > > If we ever get the campaign started, I'm afraid I > won't be using OD&D - > one campaign of that is enough. And our old group > also has a > long-standing AD&D-campaign, so that is out too. > Diversity is > cool. Besides, the guys of our weekly group have > played AD&D enough in > their time, and wouldn't want to get back anymore. > > Possibly I'll try HARP (so in that sense I'm off > topic here). > > But the system is irrelevant here, I'm more > interested in Mystaran ideas. > See, my old OD&D campaign (the Twin Campaigns) has > deviated a lot from the > Mystaran products, and many ideas in Gazetteers > simply aren't viable > there. I wish to start a good old 1000 AC campaign. > > The framework will possibly be a trading caravan, or > at least the campaign > starts there to allow a wide diversity of PCs as > caravan guards. > > I have a lot of samller ideas that I have dumped > during the last 14 years, > but I also want the campaign to centre on some basic > notion: rivalry of > Trading Houses, Shadowelf plots, whatever. But after > all these years it's > hard to decide. > > Any ideas? > > Yours, > > Ville > > ******************************************************************** > The Other Worlds Homepage: > http://www.wizards.com/dnd/OtherWorlds.asp > The Mystara Homepage: http://www.dnd.starflung.com/ > To unsubscribe, send email to > LISTSERV@ORACLE.WIZARDS.COM > with UNSUB MYSTARA-L in the body of the message. > > ===== Thibault SARLAT a.k.a Clenarius www.mystara.fr.st ICQ 16622177 MSN Messenger: clenarius@hotmail.com __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Read only the mail you want - Yahoo! Mail SpamGuard. http://promotions.yahoo.com/new_mail ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 4 Aug 2004 21:42:07 +1000 From: shawn stanley Subject: Re: Dragon magazine/ Dungeon magazine At 07:23 PM 2/08/2004 +0200, you wrote: > Couldn't we offer to the Wizards that we write every > three months an adventure/supplement for Dungeon or > Dragon that they can use, completely free? 90% of > MMLers would buy the issues where these are featured, > even if they never buy them regularly. We could use > Shawn, as the head of the Vaults, to make this offer, > maybe they could be interested. If we stick to > something with low flame potential, we could do > something really nice here...a possible official > future for Mystara, with US having it in our hands... > What do you think, Shawn? And you other guys and > girls? > > Giulio an interesting sounding idea, they would still have to be convinced that such a thing wouldn't lessen sales where a generic or FR/Greyhawk/Eberron/whatever article/adventure would potentially increase sales. If this is a serious proposal then I would be happy to try and spearhead it. shawn stanley what have you done for me lately ... more to the point what have i done for me - mightyfew, "i can't wait" ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 4 Aug 2004 07:48:56 -0400 From: Chris Cherrington Subject: Re: A New Campaign Where do you meet? I want to play 8-) Anyone near me (West Palm Beach, FL) that would like to start a Mystara campaign? ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 4 Aug 2004 14:24:02 +0200 From: =?iso-8859-1?q?la=20Volpe?= Subject: Re: Dragon magazine/ Dungeon magazine > an interesting sounding idea, they would still have > to be convinced that > such a thing wouldn't lessen sales where a generic > or > FR/Greyhawk/Eberron/whatever article/adventure would > potentially increase > sales. If this is a serious proposal then I would > be happy to try and > spearhead it. > > shawn stanley It IS a serious proposal. To convince them, as Thib pointed out, we could write a generic adventure/location etc. and then add a short note to set it officially in Mystara. Obviously, through the use of carefully selected characters and locations, the thing would be much more mystaran than it could seem by simply reading it...an example, if we set an adventure somewhere on the ruins of the Great Crater...we could even write a set of small adventures and a short geographic description of the area (based on Andrew Theisen's "Great Crater in 1015", complete with map). Without too many references to past history (the war and so on) to make it easily understandable to all readers. And then this box with the reference to Mystara...something like "the Great Crater originally appeared in the Mystara campaign...see here and there..." and the thing signed with a "by x and y on behalf of the Mystaran Mailing List" and the web address. Giulio ____________________________________________________________ Yahoo! Companion - Scarica gratis la toolbar di Ricerca di Yahoo! http://companion.yahoo.it ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 4 Aug 2004 16:07:40 +0200 From: =?iso-8859-1?q?Havard=20Faanes?= Subject: Re: A New Campaign --- Chris Cherrington wrote: > Anyone near me (West Palm Beach, FL) that would like > to start a Mystara campaign? No, but it sounds like a place I'd like to move to. If you could get me a decent priced house and a job there, ill be happy to move to Florida and start a Mystara campaign any day ;) Håvard ===== *** Håvard R. Faanes www.stud.ntnu.no/~havardfa ______________________________________________________ Få den nye Yahoo! Messenger på http://no.messenger.yahoo.com/ Nye ikoner og bakgrunner, webkamera med superkvalitet og dobbelt så morsom ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 4 Aug 2004 16:16:35 +0200 From: =?iso-8859-1?q?Havard=20Faanes?= Subject: Re: A New Campaign Caravan guard type scenarios often tend to be just a starting point of an adventure/campaign, but rarely something more. Why not base your whole campaign around one caravan moving back and forth between two places, each trip taking about a week, then staying in town for a week and then going back? A good location would be a caravan travelling between Akorros and Sayr Ulam. Several trading houses may have interests in the caravan in both countries, and varous raiders, rivals etc would be interested in causing trouble. Have the PCs have some reason to gradually get more invested interest in the caravan as the campaign moves on. Perhaps some of them have family members who are heavy sponsors of the caravan, or a wizard could be member of a guild who frequently uses the caravan to obtain and sell rare spell components. Eventually, the PCs could become Caravan Masters themselves. Since they move between only two cities, they will gain friends and allies in both places and will have vested interest in protecting these two places should either come into danger. Just some ideas there.. For a system, I have heard that Harp is pretty good, but I never got around to buying it. Any particular reason why you dont use 3e? Sounds like that would be easier for conversions than a non-D&D game.... Håvard --- Ville_V_Lähde skrev: > Hello, > > I'm thinking about starting a brand new Mystara > campaign, and I could use > some fresh ideas. I have only been DMing one > campaign in OD&D Mystara, one > that has been going on since autumn 1988 and doesn't > seem to end anytime > soon. But the trouble is that our regular campaign > doesn't get many gaming > sessions, since after all these years people have > developed lives, kids, > jobs etc (horror!). And what's more, we are now in > the midst of a > solo-game period. > > But my other gaming group that has been playing > almost weekly for the last > 10 years or so has just finished a long career of > Harnmaster, and we are > looking for the next project. We are currently > experimenting on indie > games, but we need one steady campaign to create > continuity. I proposed > Mystara, and people were interested. > > If we ever get the campaign started, I'm afraid I > won't be using OD&D - > one campaign of that is enough. And our old group > also has a > long-standing AD&D-campaign, so that is out too. > Diversity is > cool. Besides, the guys of our weekly group have > played AD&D enough in > their time, and wouldn't want to get back anymore. > > Possibly I'll try HARP (so in that sense I'm off > topic here). > > But the system is irrelevant here, I'm more > interested in Mystaran ideas. > See, my old OD&D campaign (the Twin Campaigns) has > deviated a lot from the > Mystaran products, and many ideas in Gazetteers > simply aren't viable > there. I wish to start a good old 1000 AC campaign. > > The framework will possibly be a trading caravan, or > at least the campaign > starts there to allow a wide diversity of PCs as > caravan guards. > > I have a lot of samller ideas that I have dumped > during the last 14 years, > but I also want the campaign to centre on some basic > notion: rivalry of > Trading Houses, Shadowelf plots, whatever. But after > all these years it's > hard to decide. > > Any ideas? > > Yours, > > Ville > > ******************************************************************** > The Other Worlds Homepage: > http://www.wizards.com/dnd/OtherWorlds.asp > The Mystara Homepage: http://www.dnd.starflung.com/ > To unsubscribe, send email to > LISTSERV@ORACLE.WIZARDS.COM > with UNSUB MYSTARA-L in the body of the message. > > ===== *** Håvard R. Faanes www.stud.ntnu.no/~havardfa ______________________________________________________ Få den nye Yahoo! Messenger på http://no.messenger.yahoo.com/ Nye ikoner og bakgrunner, webkamera med superkvalitet og dobbelt så morsom ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 4 Aug 2004 16:19:42 +0200 From: =?iso-8859-1?q?Havard=20Faanes?= Subject: Re: D&D Companion Rules Cant help you with your question about the pdfs, but the RC does contain monsters, about 200 of them IIRC. AFAIK, they are all taken from the Basic, Expert, Companion and Master Sets though, so you'll have all of them once you get the Companion Box. Håvard --- "N. M." skrev: > << Its a bit late for replying to this one, I > suppose, but I'd urge you to > consider getting the RC. >> > > Having all the boxed sets except Companion and > Immortal, I'm not so > interested in the Rules Cyclopedia. (Does the RC > have monsters in it, BTW?) > > Anyway, I'd still like to know whether the PDF on > sale at RPGNow and SVGames > contains both the Player's Companion and the DM's > Companion, since it > doesn't state this explicitly. In fact, at SVGames > it has the PDF listed as > "D&D Player's Companion: Book 1". > > http://www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=1198 > http://www.svgames.com/tsr1013esd.html > > Thanks, > > Neil > ------------------ > N. M. > n.e.marsden@btinternet.com > Backup 101563.52@talk21.com > > ******************************************************************** > The Other Worlds Homepage: > http://www.wizards.com/dnd/OtherWorlds.asp > The Mystara Homepage: http://www.dnd.starflung.com/ > To unsubscribe, send email to > LISTSERV@ORACLE.WIZARDS.COM > with UNSUB MYSTARA-L in the body of the message. > > ===== *** Håvard R. Faanes www.stud.ntnu.no/~havardfa ______________________________________________________ Få den nye Yahoo! Messenger på http://no.messenger.yahoo.com/ Nye ikoner og bakgrunner, webkamera med superkvalitet og dobbelt så morsom ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 4 Aug 2004 10:52:22 -0400 From: Chris Cherrington Subject: Re: A New Campaign We can't vote, but we can play ;-) I have access to a couple of condos that are going at a good rate (and in the same gated community that I live in). If enough of us got together, we could use the clubhouse by the pool 8-) I can see the local headlines "RPGer's from around the world move to Greenacres and start Mystara commune". ============================================================ From: Havard Faanes --- Chris Cherrington wrote: > Anyone near me (West Palm Beach, FL) that would like > to start a Mystara campaign? No, but it sounds like a place I'd like to move to. If you could get me a decent priced house and a job there, ill be happy to move to Florida and start a Mystara campaign any day ;) Håvard ===== ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 4 Aug 2004 18:29:12 +0200 From: Bertrand Lhoyez Subject: Re: Dragon magazine/ Dungeon magazine That's an interesting idea. i could offer some time to this. I'm not a scenarist/ dm, so i could for instance provide help with my playing group to test the scenarii; my dm will be interesting to participate i'm sure; -----Original Message----- From: Mystara RPG Discussion [mailto:MYSTARA-L@ORACLE.WIZARDS.COM]On Behalf Of la Volpe Sent: lundi 2 août 2004 19:24 To: MYSTARA-L@ORACLE.WIZARDS.COM Subject: [MYSTARA] Dragon magazine/ Dungeon magazine Couldn't we offer to the Wizards that we write every three months an adventure/supplement for Dungeon or Dragon that they can use, completely free? 90% of MMLers would buy the issues where these are featured, even if they never buy them regularly. We could use Shawn, as the head of the Vaults, to make this offer, maybe they could be interested. If we stick to something with low flame potential, we could do something really nice here...a possible official future for Mystara, with US having it in our hands... What do you think, Shawn? And you other guys and girls? Giulio ____________________________________________________________ Yahoo! Companion - Scarica gratis la toolbar di Ricerca di Yahoo! http://companion.yahoo.it ******************************************************************** The Other Worlds Homepage: http://www.wizards.com/dnd/OtherWorlds.asp The Mystara Homepage: http://www.dnd.starflung.com/ To unsubscribe, send email to LISTSERV@ORACLE.WIZARDS.COM with UNSUB MYSTARA-L in the body of the message. ------------------------------ End of MYSTARA-L Digest - 3 Aug 2004 to 4 Aug 2004 (#2004-157) **************************************************************